DATE: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 20:42:53 +1000
SUBJECT: Astronomy Flagship Projects: Allocation of NCI time.
Dear Colleagues:
Additional supercomputing access for Astronomy Flagship projects is now available on the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) Supercomputer, located at the Australian National University.
Background:
Earlier this year NCI initiated a program of specialised support for computational astronomy and astrophysics and accepted a proposal, developed through Astronomy Australia Limited, to provide for two additional support positions --- one based at ANU at the NCI National Facility, and the other at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University. In addition 1,000,000 CPU core hours per annum have been made available on each of the NCI and Swinburne supercomputers for Astronomy Flagship projects. These allocations are intended to support projects for which the computational power of peak facilities is essential for internationally competitive, scientific progress.
Specifically, the time on the NCI system is to encourage and support applications that scale up to a high processor count to build expertise and
demand for these applications in the future.
The CPU hours at Swinburne for 2010 have been allocated. The purpose of this announcement is to inform you that 250,000 CPU core hours (service units - SU) are available for October - December 2010 on the NCI machine at ANU.
Proposal process:
The application process for the 2011 NCI allocation will be coordinated with the Merit Allocation Scheme and a further announcement will be made soon about applications for 2011. This will include details of the process for accessing the Swinburne 2011 allocation.
For the 250,000 SU available on the NCI machine in 2010, we plan to proceed with an expedited application process in order to simplify and speed up access to this outstanding resource.
If you wish to apply for time could you please visit https://nf.nci.org.au/accounts/projects_new/MAC.php and apply for a new project
by clicking on the link "LOAD new project form" near the bottom right. In section Aii only the details of the lead CI need be included; additional
researchers can be added later for successful projects. In section Bii - "Research Track Record of each Chief Investigator" - publications for 2006-2010 are required only for the lead CI.
Deadline:
The deadline for proposals is 12 midnight 26 September, 2010. These will be assessed by an expert committee chaired by myself. The NCI plans to make the SU available on 1 October, 2010.
With best regards,
Geoff Bicknell
Chair, Astronomy Flagship Time Allocation Committee.
--
Prof. Geoffrey Bicknell, Associate Director Education
Research School of Astronomy& Astrophysics, ANU
E: geoff@mso.anu.edu.au T: +61 (0)2 6125 9088
M: +61 (0)402 302 802 W: http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~geoff